Biology (bio+logos)

Understanding nature
Biologists deal with living part of nature+non living things that effect them (mainly how life works)
Biologists don’t deal with what is meaning of living things? Why should be life there (matter to
philosophers n theologists

Braches of biology
Physiology: study of function
Morphology: study of appearance, structure and form

 Anatomy (internal morphology): Study of form and structure of the internal parts like bones and
organs

 External morphology: This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape, structure, colour,
pattern, size)
Paleontology: study of fossils
Genetics: Genetics is a branch of biology concerned with the study of genes, genetic variation, and
heredity in organisms.
Molecular biology: structure of organisms, cells and their organelles at molecular level
Fresh water biology: study of life in fresh water
Microbiology: study of microbes such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa
Marine biology: study of life in sea
Social biology: deals with use of social behavior of communal life.
Species: Group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or
interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
Multicellular: individual living thing composed of many cells
Organ system: 2 or more organs working in collaborations

Organ: a group of tissues in a living organism that have been adapted to perform a specific
function
Tissue: group of similar cells that performs a specific function
Cell: structural and functional unit of life
Organelle: An organelle is a tiny cellular structure that performs specific functions within a cell
Cell theory
Robert hooke (1665) in his famous book micrographia while studying dead plant material
He saw Honey comb like compartments called cells.
Lorenz oken (1805) german scientist believed all living beings originate from or consist of
vesiclesor cells.
Jean Baptist de lamark (1809) no body can have life if its constituent parts are not cells
Robert brown (1831) report presence of nucleus in the cells
German zoologist theodor schwann (1839) and botanist schleiden (1838): nucleus, the fluid
cytoplasm and thin outer covering
Salient featues of cell theory
 All organism are composed off one more cells
 All are arisen from preexisting cells
 Cells are basic structural functional units of life
Prokaryotic Vs Eukaryotic cells
monophlyletic
Difference main structure of nuclei
Prokaryotic organisms Eukaryotic organisms
Lack membrane bound organelle Possess membrane bound organelles
mitochondria, ER, chloroplast, golgi
No distinct nucleus Contains distinct nucleus
Ribosome small size 70S 80 S
Mitosis is missing division by binary fission Mitosis and meiosis
Cell wall polysaccharides+proteins forming Cellulose, structure is different
special structure peptidoglycan or murein
chains (sacculus)
Absence of nuclei Nucleoid
3.5 billion years ago 1.5 billion years ago

Endosymbiont theory:
Evolutionary theory of the origin of eukaryotic cells from prokaryotic organisms, first articulated
in 1905 and 1910 by the Russian botanist Konstantin Mereschkowski, and advanced and
substantiated with microbiological evidence by Lynn Margulis in 1967.
Endosymbiotic theory for the origin of mitochondria suggests that the anaerobic prokaryote
engulfed a another aerobic bacteria , and this endosymbiont became an organelle “mitochondria”
Chloroplast was developed by engulfing autotrophic bacteria and flagella was developed by
engulfing spirochete.

Eukaryotes
Plants Animals
Cell wall present Absent
Central vacuole Flagella
Chloroplast Lysosome
Glyoxisome Peroxisome
Plasmodesmata Gap junctions